Accept no substitutes

Violet Jelly – part 2

We woke up this morning ready to turn our violet infusion into jelly. Unlike the examples and the recipes that we found our infusion was not blue-green, but a deep purple.
We strained out the flowers, mushing them to get out every last drop of infused water. We measured the results and found we have a little over 3 1/4 cups. We topped that off with water to get the required 3.5 cups as instructed.
Then we turned on the heat. As the waters were heating, we added 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice and the contents of one 1.75 oz package of pectin (aka Sur-Gel or other brand).
At this point the mixture was supposed to change from blue-green to violet. Ours stayed deep purple.
We brought the mixture to a roiling boil and added 4 cups of sugar. Stirring the whole time.
We brought the mixture back up to a roiling boil and kept it there for about 1 minute.
Then we ladled the liquid into five jars and began to let them cool.
In a double boiler, we melted house wax and poured it onto each jar. A film of about 1/8 inch of wax on each jar.
It took a long time to cool and to gel. We were getting a little nervous and were thinking that we would have a warm violet drink instead of jelly in the end.
Our nervousness was unfounded. The mess gelled just fine. We added another layer of house wax to be sure that we had sealed the jars well.
Now we’re ready to eat this and to make more.

5 Comments

  1. corey

    sounds great. ever try kudzu?

  2. Paul Jones

    Right now we have more violets available than kudzu if you can believe that. And violet is a nicer color than kudzu ;->

  3. sally

    A recipe for violet syrup.

  4. Heidi

    Made this recipe, but it didn’t gel–it was a gorgeous color, from start (dark indigo) to mid (dark purple) to finish (magenta).

  5. Paul

    Hmmm. This recipe has worked for us successfully for two years running yielding about 8 – 10 jars each time. I donno why you aren’t gelling. The pectin and the sugar are the things that make the gelling happen.

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